Pod Save America - “The 2024 Mess America Pageant.”

Episode Date: February 14, 2023

The GOP primary heats up, along with a little Don-on-Ron action. President Biden enrages Republican politicians everywhere by hammering their position on Medicare and Social Security. Congressman Adam Schiff stops by to talk about his campaign for California Senate. And the guys play a round of Take Appreciator. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail] and include the name of the podcast.

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Tommy Vitor. Lovett is out today. He was in Philly over the weekend and then I think he set some cars on fire. I think he was climbing a greased up pole on Broad Street, Market Street. What's a big street? I saw a clip of him in Rittenhouse Square, sort of turning over some cars. Turning up, turning over. I had a lot of questions for him about the big game. I wanted to know what he thought of Andy Reid's adjustments at halftime, the controversial pass interference call at the end.

I really was going to ask him who played. Leavitt is actually not feeling well today, but I talked to him briefly this morning, and I think he was on a plane the entire game. All day Sunday? Yeah. Not the worst. It's a pretty bad place to watch Super Bowl. Anyway, we're going to try to go on without him. On today's

show, the GOP primary heats up along with a little Don on Ron action. President Biden enrages... I thought that would get you. President Biden enrages Republican politicians everywhere by hammering their position on Medicare and Social Security.

Congressman Adam Schiff stops by the office to talk about his campaign for California Senate. And Elijah Cohn is back with another round of Take Appreciator. But first, be sure to check out Crooked's X-Ray Vision podcast. Join Jason and Rosie as they explore the world of gaming and comics. Lately, they've been taking a deep dive into the new HBO series, The Last of Us. I can't watch The Last of Us. Zombies late at Sunday night. I can't do it. I've not started it yet, but I would like to. Emily loves it.

She's like stayed up watching it and then she's scared. She was crying one episode. I was like, I don't think I want any of this. Episode three is sad is what Twitter told me. That's what everyone keeps saying, yeah. They also take a look at the upcoming Ant-Man movie. Plus you can watch full episodes of the podcast right on the X-Ray Vision YouTube channel. Tune in every Wednesday and Friday for new episodes of X-Ray Vision wherever you get your

podcasts. All right, let's get to the news. The race for the 2024 Republican nomination kicks into high gear this week. A high-minded contest of the country's best and brightest that we're calling the Mess America pageant. There she is. Rhonda Sanctimonious. Very nice. that we're calling the Mess America pageant. There she is. Rhonda Sanctimonious. Very nice. What do we think? Great sting. I like it.

I feel good about the sting. Explosive. Good job, Andy. Good job, team. Well done. So Donald Trump will get his first official opponent on Wednesday when Nikki Haley, his former U.N. ambassador and two-term governor of South Carolina, announces her presidential campaign at a rally in Charleston. The Wall Street Journal reports that Haley's fellow South Carolinian, Senator Tim Scott, is also taking steps to run with a home state speech on Thursday and a trip to Iowa later this month.

Meanwhile, Ron DeSanctimonious, whom Trump is also now reportedly calling Meatball Ron. He's getting closer maybe to something like meatball is that a is that a body shaming attempt because it's a very it's a very glass houses sort of nickname from from from trump sanctimonious that's not good either anyway anyway uh whoever he is won't formally launch his campaign until late spring maybe even late summer but desantis was dragged into the fray last week after Trump accused him of, quote, grooming high school girls with alcohol. Back when he was a teacher, he retruthed some lunatic who had posted a picture of DeSantis with some high school girls at a party when he was apparently a high school teacher after

he graduated college. Yeah. Here's how DeSantis responded to the attack. I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden. That's how I spend my time. I don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans. I don't think his voice is kind of annoying. I just really, I don't know his voice is kind of annoying i just really i'm sorry i don't know that's going to wear well i don't like it suddenly it's the the santas balloon is popping for me just from just hearing the voice oh no i'm sad for you so early uh let's start let's start here the new

york times reported over the weekend that de santis is quote likely to stick with a measured approach to trump uh in a piece that also quotes Democratic strategist Tommy Vitor. This guy. Tommy, what do you think about DeSantis' response here? I mean, I could argue this both ways. So maybe we should. And then in the future, we clip whichever one was right. We had an offline sort of debate about this, you and I. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe we should replay that here for people. We're all texting away. I mean, I think that DeSantis is in a tough spot because Trump wants to fight with him. And that is dangerous always because Trump will play dirtier, punch harder, generally be a worse human being than anyone else, as evidenced by accusing someone who's not in the race yet of grooming teenage girls. Yeah. That's not normally how this goes. Not pulling any punches there. He's also very good at it. Look no further than Ted Cruz, Jeb, Little Marco, et cetera. But I thought that that clip of DeSantis sounded very weak. And my takeaway from the last five, six years of politics is that Republicans, above all else, especially Republican primary voters, want you to be their tough culture warrior.

And they want to own the libs. They want to kill the woke companies, be as cruel as possible to LGBT people, et cetera. DeSantis has put in a lot of work in that category, right? He's going after schools. He's fighting with Disney. He's going, you know, erasing black history from AP courses in Florida. He's like doing all the worst things you can do. And obviously attacking Trump is not owning the libs, but I think primary campaigns become sort of a proxy for showing people how you'd run in the general. And if I were DeSantis, I would want to look a little tougher.

And I would want to remind voters in all these exchanges that Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden. And maybe that's how you sort of incorporate that into that response. Like when Republicans fight each other instead of Democrats, that's how we end up losing to Joe Biden, as Donald Trump knows, something like that. But, you know, it's risky because Trump is going to fight dirty. I do think the Trump is a loser framing is probably the most effective for DeSantis. I think his central challenge is he cannot win. Ron DeSantis cannot win the Republican nomination without the support of most people who still love Donald Trump. Right. And so if you're DeSantis, you've got to figure out, like, what can I say about Donald Trump that gets those people who love Trump but are open to alternatives to vote for me? to vote for me and i think that there's a couple reasons he might look i i agree that like it wasn't i think he probably could have gone a couple ticks sharper on the response it screamed

jeb to me oh see i don't see that's where i disagree i had a lot of jeb's clap in there was such a jeb i think he's not jeb i think he has a lot more credibility with the base than jeb a lot more credibility with the mega media universe than jeb ever did so i think he's not Jeb. I think he has a lot more credibility with the base than Jeb, a lot more credibility with the MAGA media universe than Jeb ever did. So I think he's not Jeb. But I just think I don't know what I would do if I was Ron DeSantis, because I do think that he could have added something about Trump losing, whether it was an indirect reference to Trump losing or direct reference to Trump losing. I do think he could have done that. I think the other reason he may have held his fire is Trump truthed this attack on DeSantis. Trump's truths haven't been getting much attention. He doesn't get much media coverage. Yeah. Well, the New York Times picked this one up. I mean, I thought this was a special and especially odious truth when you're accused of grooming

high school girls. It's an odious truth. But notice that the Times didn't pick it up until DeSantis responded. Right. You know, and I think that there's going to be a difference between DeSantis responding, you know, in a pretty indirect way like he did here. And if DeSantis is on the debate stage with Trump and Trump says something like that on the debate stage, DeSantis cannot respond like this.

He's going to have to respond in a much sharper way. So maybe he's sort of biding his time. Yeah. I mean, look, you fight Trump now, you fight him later. At some point, you're going to have to throw a punch at the guy at the base slubs and figure out how to do it. I just think that he looked Jeb-like in that exchange. I agree he's not Jeb. He is a vicious, nasty culture warrior person, whereas Jeb tried to be something very different than that and is a bush and has that whole yeah legacy but uh i don't know not not a great day for ronnie i also think he's probably hoping that he gets um gets a lot more bill mitchell's do you hear what happened with bill mitchell bill mitchell was so upset that donald trump made this attack against launched

this attack against desantis that he said he was officially off the Trump train and now backing DeSantis. We should probably be a little less online. Bill Mitchell was a super hardcore Twitter supporter, right-wing personality who endorsed Trump earlier. We all mocked Bill Mitchell because he said that the only ground game that you need was in our hearts. We thought that was funny because there was no way Hillary Clinton could lose in 2016. Dear listeners, please let us know. You all know who Bill Mitchell is. Come on. He has great teeth. You all know who Bill Mitchell is.

Sparkly white veneers. I do think, by the way, we sort of skipped past the actual grooming attack itself. But it's really just pure karma, by the way. That like, remember. Of course. DeSantis's current spokesperson said that anyone who is against the don't say gay bill is, quote, probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of four to eight year old children. So just what a shame. What a shame that it was turned around and DeSantis got bitten by the same attack.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. I also think it was a DeSantis responds to Trump calling him a groomer at an event where he's surrounded by diapers. Did you see the... I didn't catch that. Yeah, he was at a diaper event. And all you can see is DeSantis. And then there's just stacks of pampers all around him. So I don't know if that was the ideal format for it.

That's a weird image. But yeah, so that's... So Nate Cohn also has a piece analyzing the polling, the early polling so far, where he concludes that Ron DeSantis is not Scott Walker, the former governor of Wisconsin, who was anointed an early front runner in 2016 before dropping out two months later after his announcement due to a lack of support. What do you think of the DeSantis Walker comparisons? We already did a little DeSantis Jeb, but what do you think of DeSantis Walker? I think they're unfair. I mean, they're both governors. They both go after Democrats pretty hard. They both have resting dumb face. But in terms of polling, DeSantis is way ahead of Scott

Walker. He is tripling up his best ever score, no, quadrupling Walker's best ever polling. Walker was just a bad politician. I mean, he never seemed depth. He made a bunch of embarrassing gaffes pretty early on. That might be the case for DeSantis, but he just won pretty overwhelmingly in Florida. Yeah. I mean, I think in the governor's race, even if you want to put horse race polling aside, it's like on paper, DeSantis, I think is the toughest Republican Donald Trump has ever faced or might ever face his His resume, right, both his like governing record, if you like that kind of stuff, if you're a right winger, and his political record, right, Scott Walker sort of eked it out in Wisconsin, DeSantis trounced in Florida, at least in his

reelect. And he fought unions very hard, which is what Republicans got excited about for some reason. Right. But that was, and this of course was like the old, the Mitt Romney Republican Party, where they really got off on the union busting. Yes. These people are the culture wars. You know, he's got sky high name recognition, high approval among the base, high approval among Trump voters, a ton of fans in the MAGA media universe with all those influencers. He's got money. And I do think that DeSantis has a primary calendar advantage to Iowa comes first. And I do think that DeSantis has a primary calendar advantage, too. Iowa comes first. Trump lost Iowa.

And then also there's all these stories about evangelicals being sort of turning on Trump a little bit. You can see DeSantis picking up that support. And then I think New Hampshire is a state that is tailor-made for Ron DeSantis, too, because among early states, for Republicans at least, it's got a high percentage of college-educated Republicans, and you do expect DeSantis to do better among the college-educated Republican set, which is the set that is more likely to say that it's time for someone new. So then if he does good in those first two states, then you go to South Carolina, and it's sort of crowded. Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see if some of these institutions rally around DeSantis or just remain anti-Trump. rally around DeSantis or just remain anti-Trump. There was a bunch of stories last week, I think, about the Koch brothers kind of signaling loud and clear that their entire network was going to be anti-Trump going forward. Now, that's all fine and good, but if they don't pick a horse and the vote gets split again, I don't think that does anyone a lot of good. I think there's been some reporting that Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch, and some of the Fox properties are like all in on DeSantis. A lot of

Wall Street people are too. So we'll see. But yeah, I think, look, I'd love to compare DeSantis to Scott Walker and treat him like a joke, but I just don't think he is. I also think that it's really going to come down to how DeSantis or other Republicans take on Trump. And this goes back to your original loser point. In 2015, the attack against Trump from all these other candidates, when they finally got around to attacking him, was like, oh, our party can't be represented by this man. We're better than him. And oh, he's just stooping so low. No one's going after Donald Trump like this this time, except like Larry Hogan, if he runs or something, or maybe Chris Sununu, you know, this is going to be, this guy's a loser. We have to win and we can't win if we have Donald Trump again. And there was a little bit of that in 2015, but mostly it

was because we're not gonna be able to win because America's going to think he's such a bad person, you know? Yeah. Also, I think 2016 was a truly open primary. And this time, I think it's much more of a contest to see who is the main contender against Trump, which is just kind of mess with the dynamics. Yeah. So aside from DeSantis, let's talk about the Republican contender who's going to announce this week, Nikki Haley. She released a video on Monday teasing her announcement. Here's a clip. teasing her announcement. Here's a clip. America is the greatest force for good in human history, and we should never be ashamed to say that. For those that don't have our back, we're taking names. I wear heels. It's not for a fashion statement. It's because if I see something wrong, we're going to kick them every single time. What do you think of that message? And what do you think about Haley as a candidate in general? I mean, I want to like the foreign policy message, but I guess my takeaway is like, kind of, who is that video for? It felt very 2002 post 9-11 kind of neocon adjacent to me. And I think, I think she has a lot of problems just structurally. Like one, it hurts my heart to say this, but I don't think a lot of people know

who the US ambassador to the United Nations is, what that job does, or really care about foreign policy. Second, both Haley and Mike Pompeo, they worked for Trump. So if they're going to try to run on those accomplishments, Trump will have a much better claim to those wins than they do. Pompeo also seems to hate Nikki Haley and is going after her hard. He called her a quitter in his book. And so I think he, Pompeo seems to think that they're occupying the same sort of foreign policy, tough person lane. And that's a challenge. And then I think lastly, like Trump has reminded us many times over that misogyny is a feature, not a bug in the Republican Party and the Republican primary electorate more broadly. And Nikki Haley has already faced some really disgusting rumors and innuendo starting in Michael Wolff's book.

And then, you know, look like Nick Fuentes, right? The little Nazi that was dining with Trump and Kanye. He says he wants to live in a world where women can't vote or work, right? So it's like real, like literal misogyny. So I think, I don't know if she's a talented politician. A lot of people see a lot of promise in her. I'm just trying to figure out kind of how you run against your former boss and do so knowing where the current base zeitgeist is. I think her biggest problem is she's one of the biggest phonies in Republican politics, and that's a pretty crowded lane.

This is someone whose defining moment as governor was taking down the Confederate flag from the state capitol after the horrific shooting at the AME Church in 2015. Four years later, she's on Glenn Beck show, basically defending the Confederate flag after she took it down, basically saying that the shooter and people like that hijacked the Confederate flag for their own purposes. In reality, there's other people who view it differently. This is after Sherry took it down. She was like, remember when she endorsed Marco, little Marco in the primary? And she was like, you know, marco little marco yeah in the primary and she

was like you know we cannot have as the leader of our party someone who refuses to disavow the kkk i will i will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the kkk that is not a part of our party this is not who we want as president donald trump is everything i taught my children not to do in kindergarten these are things she things she said. And then she goes and is his UN ambassador. Then after January 6th, she says, oh, he shouldn't run again. Then she says, oh, if he runs, I'm not going to run. That hypocrisy, though, I think they all have that problem. I mean, not Pompeo because he didn't really run against Trump.

But I think everyone who ran against Trump in 2016 has this problem. I agree with you. These are some of the most egregious examples and quotes. But Ron DeSantis isn't going have those that problem that's true you know he never any like this is why nikki haley mike pompeo mike pence none of them these people who are like back and forth on trump the whole time like because even if you are a hardcore maga supporter out there you're not gonna like these people for the other for the same reason that no one trusts Kevin McCarthy and Magarole, because they think

he's a fucking phony. And Nikki Haley's just like that. It's funny that she endorsed Marco Rubio. It's tough. She is just... What about Tim Scott? Do you think there's a lane for Tim Scott in this primary? I feel like he has a similarly muddled

message. He's a very, very conservative senator, a very conservative voting record. But his message he's trying to run on is unity and optimism. He's also gotten the most coverage for taking on police reform, which I suspect is not very popular among his base and also didn't get done. So my question is sort of like, what's the strategy? Are we doing never Trump voters? Are we running right wing based conservative without the edges? I just I don't,

I'm not sure what his path is. And like, now they have this added home state problem with him and Nikki Haley running out of South Carolina. Nikki Haley actually appointed Tim Scott to finish out Jim Dement's term in 2012. So they, I think they must've been close at one point. So sure. Advisors they, yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. And again, like I think Trump, DeSantis, all the CRT stuff, like has proven that racism is a feature and not a bug when it comes to the Republican base. And, you know, I wonder what that will mean for Tim Scott. So I don't know. I'm just, I wonder how many of these candidates are floating their names or getting in, in hopes that Trump decides not to run.

Yeah, I think they also I think they're looking at the field and they're thinking to themselves, OK, there's this clear there's an appetite for someone who's not Trump. Ron DeSantis is taking up space now. But if DeSantis falters, maybe me, you know. But I think I mean, now we should say that in south carolina nicki haley and tim scott are the two most popular politicians that's including with the republican base so you have a lot of hardcore trump voters who love both of them but i think nationally they are two republicans who like democrats think would be a tough republican to face in a general election and i think for the republican party they're like relics of what the party looked like in 2012 i think of nicki haley a tough Republican to face in a general election. And I think for the Republican Party, they're like relics of what the party looked like in 2012. I think if Nikki Haley and Tim Scott ran in 2012, maybe they beat Mitt Romney and they're the Republican nominee against Barack Obama. And

they're like, that's a really tough race. I just think that that kind of Republican Party, like you said, that it's a bunch who cares about like neocon foreign policy and and Tim Scott's brand of like up by your bootstraps, you know, taken on poverty, but with the private sector kind of thing. Like that's just such a relic. Well, I mean, I think where Tim Scott lost me was the message of unity and optimism. Because I think the base wants to actually just punch the libs in the face all the time and own us. And I'm not sure that he can deliver on that. The constituency and the Republican party for that is just like, I don't know, 5%, 10% to be really generous. That's yeah, no shit. Now maybe one of them, or, or all of these folks are hoping that maybe they don't attack Donald Trump too harshly if

they run. And then they hope that maybe he's, you know, they're his VP or he decides not to run or he's indicted or God knows what. I i mean he's an older guy who knows things happen or they raise their profile ahead of 2028 yeah there's not a lot of them think there's no downside to running i think so president biden is still the only democrat expected to run in 2024 uh and he seems to be having a great time calling out republican politicians who proposed or voted for plans that would cut Social Security and Medicare. A criticism he's been repeating since last week's State of the Union that Republicans are furiously trying to back away from. Let's listen.

I know that a lot of Republicans, their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me say this. If that's your dream, I'm your nightmare. It's truly a legal Ponzi scheme. I kind of look at Social Security the way I would at the Department of Defense and our defense spending. We're never going to not fund defense. But at the same time, every single year, we look at how we can make it better. That's not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan. The Republican plan, as I pointed out last fall, if we were to become the majority, there were no plans to raise taxes on happy American people or to sunset Medicare or Social Security.

So that was Ron Johnson, once again, calling Social Security Ponzi scheme, which of course was after Biden's State of the Union. plan calling Social Security Ponzi scheme, which of course was after Biden's State of Union. Mike Rounds, Senator Rounds, who was saying that we should look at it, look at Social Security every year. I'm sure that would go well in Congress. And then unmistakably, the voice of Mitch McConnell calling it the Rick Scott plan. Were you surprised how much Mitch McConnell seems to absolutely despise Rick Scott? No, not at all. I mean, Rick Scott is an incredible gift. I'm so glad he exists in this world and the Biden team is going after him. You have to remember too that Rick Scott was the CEO of a company that was fined $1.7 billion for Medicare

fraud, one of the largest fraud settlements in the history of the country. And now this guy is like, trust me to keep social security and Medicare solvent through this absurd proposal. The Congress that can't even pick a speaker of the House amongst just Republicans, we're going to reauthorize every spending bill of every five years. It's the worst idea I've ever heard. But the best part about Rick Scott is he is so arrogant that he refuses to back down. He takes offense at hearing things he said read back to him. He argues with TV anchors and gets it wrong. And so, no, I'm not at all surprised Mitch McConnell hates him. McConnell, like, he can read a poll and he knows that 8% of voters think it's a good idea to cut funding for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And this is a terrible fight for them to take on. Terrible fight. I think what was most interesting, and I don't know if we got this part in the clip that we just played, but like McConnell could have stopped at. That's the Rick Scott plan.

That's not happening. McCarthy and I are going to make sure that doesn't happen. Don't worry about that. That's his plan. It's dumb. He then goes on to say, and I think Rick Scott's going to have a problem when he runs for reelection in 2024 in florida where there's a bunch of uh senior citizens i mean that is the truly wild thing about this he represents florida of all the places to be just absolutely psyched about cutting social security florida is the worst possible option

but it's it's wild to me that that mcconnell took the extra swing because like mcconnell is still going to be a minority leader in 2024 he's going to have some influence over the senate race there he wants to become majority leader yeah and i wonder if that was just frustration i wonder if he's like signaling that he would like someone else to primary rick scott who knows i mean they hate each other and it goes back uh to scott's tenure at the nrsc remember there was that big fight over mitch mcconnell's super pack raising lots of money versus the nrsc raising money how rick scott was spending money rick scott was running ads nationally with his own face in them and so after the election when it's a recrimination

season you have like on the record quotes from the little McConnell stooges, the little like pint-sized lobbyists versus the Rick Scott team. And they were like going after each other by name. It's great. I love it. I love every minute of it. We've talked about all this in the context of the debt ceiling fight, but both Biden and Trump seem eager to make this a big issue in 2024. What do you think about that strategy in the Republican primary and then in the general? Well, let's start with the Trump part, because a lot of people are like, oh, I mean, I think rightly, like, oh, interesting. Trump has a plan. They're going to dig up these old, you know,

DeSantis non-binding votes to raise the retirement age and go after him on Social Security. But every Trump budget included cuts to Social Security and Medicare. So I'm like a little, I'm struggling to see how this is a clean shot of strategic genius. Yeah. I was wondering that too. I think that Trump probably doesn't care. I think he's just going to plow through anyway and say, I'm going to protect these. And I think it is a huge problem for DeSantis both. I mean, the interesting thing is, problem for desantis both i mean the interesting thing is so desantis he voted for paul ryan's plan to turn medicare into vouchers supported a plan that would raise the retirement age of social security and medicare to 70 and his voice support for privatizing both social security and medicare other people who voted for paul ryan's dumb plan haley pompe Scott, Kristi Noem, when they were all in Congress. Pence supports

privatizing Social Security. So they're all out there on this. This is not just like Rick Scott and his crazy plan now, you know? And I do think that it's interesting that DeSantis' office and DeSantis himself have said nothing about Social Security, Medicare tax. And I don't know if that's because he's getting ready to like, you know, disavow his former position or what but i think they're all fucking scared shitless of this yeah i mean look like biden is definitely in the right place here i mean i i think um biden has endorsed raising the payroll tax cap on upper earners to expand the social security payments and make it solvent it's currently I think, through 2035 to make it solvent longer. That seems like the obvious play, both morally, economically, politically. And so I think Biden's just psyched to fight it out on this. And usually

this is the kind of conversation that you'll see in a lot of paid media, but it's really hard to get earned media around because it's just like not seen in Washington as a sexy fight. But when you start getting heckled by members of Congress and the State of the Union, and Rick Scott takes the bait on every TV program he can possibly book himself on, I mean, it's an amazing gift. And it's also a gift. So the debt ceiling fight will keep it in the headlines, potentially. Republicans, if Trump goes after DeSantis on this, and this becomes a point of contention in the primary, even if, as you said, Trump's got DeSantis on this, and this becomes a point of contention in the primary, even if, as you said, you know, Trump's got his own problems on this, then it's going to be talked about in the Republican primary. That'll keep it in the headlines. And then Biden will use

it in the general. And I think like you cited the polling that only 8% of people want cuts, but like, it's not just that it's unpopular. It's that this is an issue that really matters to people. Like when you ask for issue priority, it's way up there at the top. Democrats ran almost as many Social Security and Medicare ads as abortion in these 2022 midterms. Certainly more ads than they did about the threat to democracy. They destroyed Blake Masters over this in Arizona because Blake Masters has a fucking video of him saying he'd love to privatize Social Security. That might've been as effective as an ad talking about how Blake Masters said that

he thinks the Unabomber has his good views. I mean, that's how much people fucking hate the idea of privatizing social security and Medicare. Yeah. It's unpopular even among Republican voters. Did you see this other thing that Mike Pompeo has been trotting out, which is to make the case that you shouldn't vote for trump because he would be term limited out after four years and that you want to pick someone who can lead for eight years yeah yeah hey high class problems mike pompeo you wish he's worried mike pompeo's worried about his second term listen man mike mike needs any argument he can find he's struggling he's pointing his gun at the sky, pretending he's shooting down Chinese balloons.

It is wild imagining all these former Trump officials on stage with him. Like Pence, Haley, Pompeo. Don't they know that Donald Trump's going to look at all of them and be like, oh, y'all served in my cabinet. What was the problem there? You worked for me. Yeah. He's going to be like, you kissed my ass. You worked for me.

You did my bidding. What are you talking about, Mike Pompeo? It's wild. It's wild. All right. When we come back, Adam Schiff stops by to talk about his bid for California Senate. Joining us now is one of our favorite hometown members of Congress. He's just announced that he's running for California Senate. We are thrilled to have him here in studio. Congressman Adam Schiff, welcome back to the pod. Thank you. It's great to be with you. Also, my congressman.

That's right. You were originally my congressman, then I moved, and I got right into Ted Lieu's district, and I just moved last week, just down the street. You're my congressman again. Oh, well, that was an excellent move, although I'm hoping, frankly, to be your representative wherever you live in the state. Because you're moving around too much. I can't keep up with it. Yeah, who knows?

Who knows where I'm going to go next? So you said you're running for Senate to continue the fight to preserve our democracy. You've waged that fight very effectively in the House. What made you think you could wage it even more effectively in the Senate? Well, a couple of things. First, I think that the issues around our democracy are part and parcel of the broader fight for an economy that works for everyone. I think one of the reasons we're so vulnerable right now, and not just in this country, but around the world, is the way the economy has changed where so many millions of people are, if they're in the middle class, struggling not to fall out. If they're working families, hoping, struggling, falling short of making it into the

middle class. We have almost half the people who are homeless here in Los Angeles are working full time. Those structural problems in the economy leave people ready to consider alternatives, like a demagogue who comes along and promises that he alone can fix it. So for me, these issues are really intertwined. And I think I've demonstrated a leadership capability in the House to push back against these extreme MAGA forces that want to make the problem even worse. It's made me a lot of powerful enemies, but as Roosevelt once said, sometimes you can judge a person by the enemies they make. I'd rather be known by my friends, but I'll take it in this case. And I think some of these most important fights

in the next few years will take place in the Senate. Over our economy, over our democracy. And having been in the center of these fights in the House, I think it'd be even more effective representing the largest, most important state in the union. That's right. You've taken on a lot of fights, introduced a lot of bills during your years in the house. What would be your top legislative priorities in the Senate? Like, you know,

top three bills you might introduce out of the gate? You know, I introduced a package of our own post Watergate reforms, something I worked on for years called the Protecting Our Democracy Act. I view it as an adjunct to H.R. 1 and the John Lewis voting rights legislation as well. It would have a whole host of reforms that would codify things that were norms that we thought you couldn't violate in our democracy, which it turns out you can violate with impunity. It would expedite enforcement of congressional subpoenas. It would do away with this practice of temporary Senate appointments to avoid confirmation. It would strengthen the independence of inspector generals, put up a better wall between the Justice Department and the White House so you don't have the White House interfering in specific criminal cases,

and many other reforms. That would be at the top of my list to reintroduce if we don't get it done this session. And frankly, with the crazy people running the House, that's not very likely. That would be a top priority. Voting rights will be a top priority for me. Reinstatement of the expanded child tax credit. That tax credit lifted, as you know, 40% of the kids out of poverty. And when the Republicans allowed it to expire over our opposition, a lot of families fell back into poverty. And this is what I was referring to before when I talked about the economy not working. The fact that with a simple change of the tax code, we can lift so many millions of kids out of poverty should tell us that this

isn't rocket science on the one hand, and it is a policy choice we're making. And it's the wrong policy choice. So these are some of my top priorities. You mentioned homelessness. You obviously represent a district here in Los Angeles where there's quite a bit of homelessness. I noticed when I was doing focus groups for this other podcast, I do the wilderness. Every group of voters, whether it's young voters in Orange County, black voters in Atlanta, no matter who it was, I asked them what issue was most important to them. They said housing. And I can't afford rent, or I don't think I'll ever be able to afford a home. Obviously,

both homelessness and housing, huge issues here in California. How much do you think that will be central to your campaign? And what do you think we can do about it on a federal level? It's very central, and central in a couple ways. Central to my campaign in that it's an acute, chronic emergency right now. So we need solutions that are going to have an immediate impact in helping people move off the streets. and helping people move off the streets. I just sat down with Karen Bass a couple of weeks ago to talk about what we can do to offer to be her federal point person. I'd like to help in any way I possibly can.

I've already been and have for years been bringing millions home to my district to support community-based solutions, as well as introduce legislation to create tax incentives, to allow public housing agencies to acquire property, be able to compete with often foreign investors who will pay cash on the dollar and they just can't compete with that. But I would say, perhaps even more importantly, this too gets back to that structural issue I mentioned with the economy. At the end of the day, if people are working full time and still can't afford the basic necessities, it doesn't matter how much we try to do to attack the problem in and of itself, just focused on homelessness, if we don't attack the broader problem that people's incomes aren't increasing along with costs, then no matter what we do, the flow of people onto the streets is going to outpace our ability to take people into good housing. So we have to attack that structural

problem in the economy. And I also think that as Democrats, we have to be willing to look at what works and what doesn't work. And if things don't work, then we need to try other approaches. Taxpayers are generous and they are Los Angelinos and Californians. They want to be compassionate, are compassionate, but they also want to make sure that money's not being wasted, that what we're doing is effective and cost-effective and humane. And we have to be willing to look at these things with eyes wide open and say, okay, this is working. We need to put more resources into it. This is not working. This is unsustainable. Just seeing, for example, BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, spent almost a million and a half dollars on a program to address homelessness and ended up helping a single person. That's not sustainable. And so I think it really requires us to take a hard look at what works and what doesn't and invest in what does. It feels like housing supply is a bit of an issue too,

because even when people are getting ahead and have an income to sort of afford other things in life, the cost of housing itself is so high and you can't find any affordable housing around. Do you think that there needs to just be on the supply side, just a lot more housing built in a lot more places in California? I think we do need a lot more housing. And I think that we can explore any number of ways to create tax incentives to produce more affordable housing. One of the approaches that I used in legislation I introduced a few years ago is to say that, let's say you have a property and you want to sell it to a public housing agency, but you're getting cash offer from someone else, or you're getting even more than what a public housing agency can do. And often for the public

housing agencies, they have regulatory loops to jump through and it takes time. The bill that I introduced some time ago would say, look, we'll give you the same tax treatment, favorable tax treatment that we would give you if your property had been condemned. So we'll create an incentive for you. If you care about these issues and you want to help, here's a way you can do it and you'll get a tax benefit as a result. There are innumerable ways we can use the tax code to help people. And my Republican colleagues like to think that whether people are homeless or they can't afford healthcare or they're super rich, it's all the result of Adam Smith's invisible hand and the intrinsic merit of whoever does well. The reality is, it's not Adam Smith and it's not an invisible hand. It's often the hand of a very visible

person with a lot of influence. I mean, that we treat the carried interest of hedge fund managers as a capital gain rather than ordinary income is not Adam Smith's invisible hand at work. They have a powerful person advocating and many powerful people advocating for that. So we ought to use the tax code to help bring those costs down. I think local governments need to work with state governments, which need to work with the federal government to make sure that there aren't artificial impediments in the way of producing more affordable housing. Because you're right, it's also an issue of supply and demand. One of the new responsibilities you'd have as senator is confirming judges, including possibly Supreme Court justices.

Obviously, trust in the Supreme Court right now is it an all-time low among the public? What are your thoughts on Supreme Court reforms, either changing the number of justices on the court, term limits, or potentially other reforms? I'm joining Hank Johnson and Jerry Nadler to once again introduce legislation to expand the size of the court. I have to tell you, this is not a solution I would have embraced six or eight years ago. But Mitch McConnell so successfully gamed the system by withholding an appointment from Barack Obama under the false pretext that, well, the election is coming up in about a year. We can't possibly interfere with the choice of the voters. well, the election is coming up in about a year. We can't possibly interfere with the choice of the voters. And then, of course, forced Amy Coney Barrett down our throat while people were literally voting for Joe Biden. Votes were literally being cast in the most chokingly hypocritical fashion.

The result is we have two justices who, you know, quite separate apart from others who don't belong in the court because they're reactionaries, don't belong in the court because they're reactionaries, don't belong in the court because they shouldn't be there but for the gaming of the system. And so my view is McConnell and Trump have stacked the court. It ought to be unstacked. And that's not going to happen in the next half century unless we expand the court. And I've got two kids in their 20s. I'm not content with the idea that they should live their whole adult life under this reactionary court. I also frankly support term limits for the court, which I think meet the constitutional requirements.

If when a judge hits that term limit, they're not removed from the bench, but they are then assigned to work, for example, in the Court of Appeals or the district court. So these are necessary, I think, because the Supreme Court is now the least represented body in the country. But I also think we need to look at other structural reforms. A big part of why our democracy has been in trouble, too, is the fact that with the gerrymander in the House, the minority party often controls a majority of seats in the House. That shouldn't be the case. Americans generally control the Senate. Because of the Electoral College, minority Americans often choose the president. And now the Supreme Court is the least representative. And at a certain point, we have to say, if the majority of Americans aren't making policy because of these structural impediments, then how long can our democracy really thrive or survive? This is obviously going to be a very tough and competitive race, partly because there are a lot

of Democrats and a lot of our listeners who really like you, really like Katie Porter, really like Barbara Lee, who's reportedly set to announce soon as well. I know that, you know, you want to be respectful and only speak to your record and qualifications, but for people who are having trouble making up their minds and want to know what are the big differences in this race, what are the big differences between the candidates, what would you say? You're right. I don't want to say anything, even by comparison, that doesn't reflect positively on my colleagues because I think my colleagues are great. And this is a situation of rivals under the same flag. But let me just speak to my own record. Through this decade, I don't think they're in the House,

apart from Speaker Pelosi, who is the champion of all champions, has been anyone more in the center of the fight to preserve our democracy, to create an economy that works for people, to protect our rights than I have. And I've been very proud to be in the center of those fights. I will acknowledge that part of why I was in the center of those fights is because of the fortuity that those fights ended up in, oddly enough, the Intelligence Committee. But I took on a very important leadership role that taught me a lot of things about our Constitution, about our colleagues, about how to use a position of influence to protect the people I represent, all of those skills I would bring to the Senate. And I also have a demonstrated ability to get things done on behalf of the people I represent. along with the endorsements of about 20 of my California House colleagues, current and past, is not any adverse reflection on my colleagues, who I think that is the two other candidates running or about to run,

but rather an acknowledgment of the fact that I get things done. We're all progressives, but I have a track record of getting things done and delivering for people. And that's part of what I'll be running on. For those who'd like to learn more, they can go to adamschiff.com. That's adamschiff.com. You've been calling yourself a progressive. You supported very progressive legislation, Green New Deal, Medicare for All. What made you decide to join the more moderate New Democrat coalition as opposed to the Congressional Progressive Caucus? You know, I actually hoped to join the Progressive Caucus, and I had talked to Pramila. She was very encouraging of my joining last session,

and I thought about the session before and wanted to. Then I got caught up in having to impeach the president and then further caught up in having to investigate an insurrection. Now I'm no longer the chairman of the committee. I can get more involved in caucuses, and I'm looking forward to it. I was attracted to the New Democratic Caucus also, and there are members who are in both the Progressive Caucus and the New Dems, as I would be, because they are willing to look at new solutions to things. And if problems,

the existing solutions aren't working, they're open to entertaining things that are. And so I find it a useful incubator for new ideas. This is a race in very blue California. It's possible the race ends up, because the jungle primary, a race between two Democrats and the general. So there'll be a lot of discussion about the Democratic Party and the future of the Democratic Party. And seeing that we were just talking about the Progressive Caucus and the New Democratic Coalition, what's your overall critique of where you think the Democratic Party has fallen short in recent years? Well, I want Democrats to be part of a durable majority that is one that lasts and lasts, not one that takes the majority when we win a wave election and then hangs on for dear life as long as we possibly can. So how do we get there? And I think the answer is we're going to have to start winning in places that we have not been winning.

We're going to have to start winning in a lot of rural America. We're going to have to start winning in areas in the south and in the west and midwest. And I think at the end of the day, what that most requires is a laser-like focus on the economy and what's working and what isn't working. Showing respect to people in every part of the state of California, every part of the country. It requires us to be there, to make the case. Neither taking for granted anyone who's traditionally part of our base, nor assuming that people who aren't traditionally part of our base are unwilling to consider us. They're unwilling to consider us if we don't make the case. In 2016, as Trump was running in the primary and then the general, there were a lot of more than dog whistles to racism. There were some direct appeals to racism,

but there were also a lot of economic arguments, some of which resonated with people. When he talked about the forgotten people and said, we had Bush as president before, we had Clinton as president before, and they were still struggling. Now, of course, he did nothing to help them and so much of what he did hurt them. That tax cut for rich people and corporations just stripped the country of resources that might have been used to help people. But the economic pain people are feeling is real.

And the anxiety and people seeing their quality of life in parts of the country is less than their parents. And the fears they have for their children are real. And if we want to be a durable majority, we need to be addressing those very real economic challenges. And this is one of the reasons why I thought Biden was absolutely brilliant in the State of the Union speech, because first of all, what he and we Democrats have done in the last two years have been the most significant strides at dealing with those economic issues of any Congress or presidency, I think, in a generation.

The Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Chips and Science Act and so many more are going to really help people around the country. I loved it when Biden said that we're going to be doing lots of ribbon cuttings with this infrastructure, Bill, and I will see you there. And he looked over the Republican side of the aisle when he said it, because they will show up even though they voted against it. Yeah, they've been doing that for a decade now. But I guess I would say in the way of criticism, sort of self-reflection about our party,

that we haven't worked hard enough to win over people, a lot of working class families that we've lost that we shouldn't lose, that we need to win back. Do you think it's a policy issue? Do you think it's just purely not showing up in rural America? Do you think it's the way we talk? I think it's a combination of things. I think it's not showing up because we don't think we can compete. And in fact, when we do compete, we find we can actually win in many of these parts of the country. I think it's a sense that is sort of fostered by the poison Trump and others put in the body politic that the Democrats look down on other people in other parts of the country. We do, and we need to show respect to people, people that agree with us or disagree with us.

There are wonderful people in every state in the union, in every part of our golden state. And so I think it's the need to be there, the need to show respect, and the need to powerfully make the case of why what we're offering can really improve the quality of people's lives. That to me is the core. Katie Porter says she's the only candidate in this race to have never taken a dime of corporate PAC money. I know you've sworn off corporate PAC money for this race. What made you sort of shift on this issue or is it a shift? You know, for years I've had a leadership position in the Democratic Party.

For six years, I've been either the frontline finance chair for the DCCC or the battleground finance chair responsible for all both candidates and incumbents like Katie Porter. And so I was raising money to compete with Republicans. And I was giving it to people like Katie Porter. And they were happy to get it. And I was happy to give it. Now I don't have to do that. I'm no longer the battleground finance chair, the frontline chair. I've given up my DCCC responsibilities because I frankly won't

have time to do them as I'm running for the Senate. I will still continue to help others. And in the last several years, again, apart from the speaker and the DCCC chair, I don't think there's anyone in the Democratic caucus who did more to elect people to the House and Senate than I did. But I don't have that responsibility. And so- Do you think the DTRIP and some of these committees should swear off corporate PAC money? That's a tough question because we're competing with Republicans that are raising it. And I frequently hear from Democrats, I'm sure you've heard from them,

maybe you've even been one of them, that we have to fight harder. We have to, you know, be more like the Republicans. Well, I don't want to be more like the Republicans. But, you know, I think we should move in the direction of, as a party, not relying on corporate contributions by strengthening our grassroots support. But again, as a party, we're already hamstrung because in blue states like California, we did the right thing. We have an independent commission that eliminated the gerrymander. In the red states, they use the gerrymander. We're already at a tremendous disadvantage because the Republicans have so many billionaire donors making dark money contributions. So I think we move in that direction, but we have to be mindful that it's one thing in a Democrat and Democratic primary where both sides swear off corporate PAC contributions as we have. It's another when we're competing for the majority of the Congress, and that's a harder decision.

What do you think is taking Merrick Garland so long? What do you think is taking Merrick Garland so long? I think it's a couple things. And I've been, as you know, very openly critical of the Justice Department, how slowly they've moved on the investigation of January 6th. I think, first and foremost, Garland is responding to what a terrible Attorney General Bill Barr was and how badly he politicized the justice department now barr is trying to reinvent himself as some great defender of democracy because he finally found a line he wouldn't cross but i i should remind people he crossed a hell of a lot of lines before he got there yeah no it's a revisionist history here oh yes yes i mean he intervened in specific criminal cases to make them go away like mike Flynn or to reduce the sentence like Roger Stone of people who are lying to cover up for themselves and Donald Trump in a way that we hadn't seen since Watergate.

But I think Merrick Garland, having seen the department so badly politicized, wants to move the department completely away from politics, reestablish its reputation for independence. And that's laudable. But I think in an effort to avoid even the appearance of any partiality, you can, if you go too far, confer a kind of immunity on the former president and his enablers. And the Justice Department, while it moved with great swiftness to go after those who broke into the Capitol, who assaulted and beat police officers, it has moved with a snail's pace when it came to those who incited them, as well as the other multiple lines of effort to overturn the election. And so exhibit A for me has always been Georgia. Donald Trump on the phone demanding 11,780 votes from the Secretary of State that didn't exist. Anyone else would have been long

under investigation or under indictment by now. And yet the Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia has been so far ahead of the Justice Department in its investigation. That just should not be the case. So I think it's probably natural caution on Merrick Garland's part. I think it's part reestablishing the department's reputation after four horrible years under sessions bar whitaker and other jokers yeah um and uh but i think um the most dangerous thing is not to be perceived um as as being somehow partial. That is a danger. But the more dangerous thing is to give an unscrupulous former president immunity and tell future presidents that they can act with impunity. The founders would have never countenanced such an idea. Before Kevin McCarthy

kicked you off the Intel Committee because you made Trump sad. You obviously spent a couple of years seeing all kinds of scary intelligence. What keeps you up at night of all the threats to our national security? What's the thing that really gets you going? Well, at the moment, I would say the potential of a nuclear use by Russia in the war in Ukraine. And I also lose sleep over the lesson that China may take from Ukraine if McCarthy and others go soft on the knees when it comes to supporting Ukraine vis-a-vis Taiwan. Ukraine vis-a-vis Taiwan. Probably the conflict most risky in terms of pulling the United States in would be a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. And China's watching carefully whether Russia can get away with invading its neighbor. And so there's a lot riding on the success of Ukraine. its neighbor. And so there's a lot riding on the success of Ukraine. It's a test case for a fellow democracy and an ally, but it also has a lot of autocrats watching and wondering, hey,

with Erdogan in Turkey, can we invade our neighbor? With Aliyev in Azerbaijan, who already has invaded his neighbor. It's a dangerous world in that respect. I continue to have grave concerns about Iran's nuclear program. And then you can't rule out North Korea acting completely irrationally. So those are some of the national security threats that keep me up. That's a fun group. But, you know, I would tell you this, what worries me even more, and this, I had two terrible, at least two terrible epiphanies during the Trump years. The first

seems pretty self-evident now, but at the time it was kind of a radical idea, which was that the predominant threat to our country, to our democracy came from within. I still think that's the case. So that I'm more worried about the threat from within than I am from without. The second epiphany was that so many of the people I worked with on the Republican side of the aisle who I respected because I believed that they believed what they were saying turned out not to believe it at all. None of it really mattered. And it caused me to appreciate even more the Liz Cheney's and the Adam Kinzinger's, although it also caused me to recognize just how few they are.

Yeah. And how many more are the Kev McCarthys, the Elise Stefaniks, people, you know, craving enough to do anything to take power or keep power. And then the nut jobs they rely on, the Matt Gaetz's. Oh, can I tell you actually one other thing now that I think about it? Because I think you're a Lebowski fan, right? Yeah, I've seen the movie a couple times. First of all, I will say this to distinguish myself from anyone else running. No one is a bigger Lebowski fan than I am.

I hear this. So if that's the criteria, it may be for many of your listeners, then there's just no choice in this race. You got it, yeah. But I have to share with you, one of my staff sent me a line from The Big Lebowski that I had never seen so perfectly applied. And it's one of my favorite lines from the movie that has sort of a political connotation. She sent it to me while Matt Gaetz was just ripping into Kevin McCarthy. So I'm sitting on the house floor. I'm watching Matt Gaetz rip into Kevin McCarthy.

And I'm agreeing with what he's saying. So it's kind of a weird thing to be agreeing with anything Matt Gaetz has to say. Worst person you know has made a good point. Exactly. So my staff sends me this quote, which is, you're not wrong. You're just an asshole. That's good. That's apt.

I tell you. If anybody was wondering what I was laughing at on the house floor in that moment when I showed them the laughing, that was it. I mean, this brings me to my last question on a lighter note. I noticed in your Twitter bio, it says you're a sometimes comic. What's up with that? How did I not know that? I do an annual comedy night. We take over the comedy store or the improv or the ice house in Pasadena.

I do some stand-up. When is that this year? Dana Carvey was our opener last year. Are you doing that this year even though you're a Senate candidate? I'm going to do it again this year, although I live in continual fear that it's going to get recorded. I mean, I saw that and I started Googling around because I'm like, is there video of Adam Schiff's stand-up that I've missed somehow? I hope not. No, believe me, there's not. I hope not. But I'll assure you, last year I did a top 10 connections between the Trump administration and Hollywood, which I introduced because the day that we had our comedy night was the day that Steve Bannon was convicted.

Oh, yeah. So I began by saying, Steve Bannon was convicted today, which got applause and laughter, you know, even without my saying it. Yeah, that's an easy one. Yeah. and laughter, you know, even without my saying it. Yeah, that's an easy one, yeah. And I said that, you know, Steve Bannon actually was a producer on Seinfeld, which is actually true. Right.

The next part is not true, but I said, in fact, he was responsible for one of the show's most iconic episodes when he asked writer Larry David to create an episode about his two favorite things, soup and Nazis. That's good. That's good. I like that. to create an episode about his two favorite things, soup and Nazis. That's good.

That's good. I like that. Well, I hope you do the comedy at least once during the Senate race, whether it's recorded or not. I'll show up for sure. You could go on Love It or Leave It and just do a quick... I would be happy to do that.

I will set that up. I'll have to work on my routine. Thanks for stopping by. Good luck in the Senate race and come back again. I know it's going to be a long race, so you'll have to stop in and tell us how it's going. I look forward to it. All right, take care.

Thanks. All right, we're back. Before we go, Elijah Cohn has returned for another round of Take Appreciator. Elijah, take it away. Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Take Appreciators. Tommy, did you catch the rule change from the last time that we played? It was on a Thursday pod.

No. What's the rule change? All right, so as usual, we're going to share some takes the producers have seen them, you've not John and Tommy have not seen them you guys will react, you'll rate them on a scale of 1 to 4 politicos, a 4 being the worst we're going to now guess the author

after we respond to the piece and talk about its politico ranking, does that make sense? It keeps it fresher in the mind People were like, right get on with it okay a little whatever roger goodell you just change the rules whenever you want it's fine the authors the guessing the authors kind of for sickos people who really are yeah yeah it is you got to be deep in this shit if you're guessing these names while we're sicko so all right let's let's jump into it i'm glad so you guys just

the audience has heard adam schiff but we just finished talking about this. The first take is from this morning's Politico playbook. It's a little bit of a bank shot, but I think this works. It's from a section titled Foiled Again. Playbook breaks down how Biden and the team have been attacking Republicans for their past remarks about repealing social security and Medicare. Then we get to this, and I quote, But some Democrats say the White House needs to strike a balance between confident and cocky. And then they quote an anonymous former White House aide, quote again, The Biden administration has a lot of things going their way, and unfortunately, they have reason to be overconfident.

It doesn't nullify the other side's determination to you know embarrass the white house in whatever way they can guys what do we think of that analysis on their overconfident look you got me because few things trigger me more than anonymous democratic sources unburdening themselves to a reporter about their anxiety over whatever like the idea that there's a voter out there who would be like oh i'm with joe biden on this on this medicare social security fight but you know what he's been a little cocky about it now he might want to privatize i might want to privatize he's a little cocky on the one hand i like to be able to pay my bills.

On the other, he seems to be feeling himself. Yeah, and I think I think I'm so worried about this that I should go tell Political Playbook but not attach my name.

I don't have that exercise, but are we ranking now? I'm right. Oh, oh, we're not. Oh, we could have done the ranking. No, we're not doing the blind ranking.

That would have been good. I liked that, by the way. I have no idea who this is. I think it's an anonymous source. It's an anonymous source, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to give it three. I'm going to give it three.

Yeah. I'm annoyed. I'm more of a one. To me, that's just par for the course right there. Wow, Tommy, I'm surprised. I knew, John, when I saw the anonymous. You know what? It was probably Tommy.

I didn't read that, so I was surprised by it. Yeah, next up, anonymous. You know what? It was probably Tommy. I didn't read that. So I was surprised by it. Yeah. Next up, we have Tommy Vitor in the New York Times. Move on. Like I said, that was anonymous. So we can't guess that person. We've got a three and a one.

Got it. Got it. This next one is from the Wall Street Journal. John actually sent this to me. It is titled Joe Biden is Bernie Sanders. I'm going to read that title again because it's a purebred take. Joe Biden is Bernie Sanders. This piece argues that the State of the Union was not meant for the general American public, but instead it was meant to appease the Democratic base ahead of Biden's 2024 reelection campaign. Here's a quote. President Biden's State of the

Union speech was an overdue act of transparency. When Mr. Biden finally announces his reelection bid, he will be running as a Democratic socialist. Guys, what do you think? Oh, God. These people. That's why when I listened to that speech, I thought, what a socialist. Trying so hard to make something stupid stick. What a socialist.

Trying so hard to make something stupid stick. Fucking socialist trying to crack down on resort fees and airline fees. Talking about the middle class. Two politicos for whoever this right-wing writer is. I have no time for this foolishness. I'm going three again. That's just ridiculous. Bernie Sanders.

Also, no one believes that. No one believes that. That Joe Biden is. Bernie Sanders. No one believes that. No one believes that, that Joe Biden is fucking Bernie Sanders. A bunch of hedge fund guys passing that article around. I feel like if there's people who are mad about it, probably from the left. No, he's not. I'm sure. I'm sure. For sure.

I'm sure. Do you guys want to take a crack at who wrote it? This one does have an author. Was it just the Ed Board? It was not the Ed Board. Always a good guess with the Wall Street Journal. Karl Rove. No, but I will say our PSA producers text had no idea who this guy was.

Who do we got? Daniel Henninger. Oh, yeah. I don't really know that person. He's a Yahoo. Yeah, clearly. I just appreciate a title like that. That was a very purebred take.

All right. Yeah. Next up, we have a piece from the New York Times titled, What Liberals Can Learn from Ron DeSantis. That's another one I got sent a lot. There's a lot of potential things to pull from this piece, but I enjoyed this section on education. Here's some quotes. DeSantis' maverick approach to primary, secondary, and higher education has brought widespread condemnation for Democrats, particularly from their more progressive wing. has taken root in American universities,

and Democrats are the ones with the knowledge, experience, and record to attend to the problem. It's on liberals to check the excesses of a liberal orthodoxy's rampant among those on its far left wing. Guys, I have more context if you wanted about what's going on in Florida, but what do you think of the take? This is, yeah, no, I um it's a maverick move to uh scapegoat young kids in order to advance your own political career that's what i think it's a real maverick move i'm trying to think about who this was oh i know who this is was that pamela something yeah it's a it's a

pamela paul joint ppm this was hot on hot on Twitter. People were mad about this one. Yeah, I'll upgrade my two to a three for this one. I just thought it was just ferociously stupid. So it's like hard. Sometimes they're so dumb, I don't get mad. That's how I sort of feel. I'm like two and a half for this one. I don't want to give her just a two.

But it's like she's getting a little cut and paste in her columns now. Like she's doing the same exact thing to trigger the libs. And it's just not as exciting anymore. anymore yeah she called another potential quote to pull from it she said uh desantis had an unorthodox approach to covet right yeah i was right i mean technically that's that's true i guess to that yes i guess that's true it was unorthodox spot the lie just letting letting people die. Guys, we went through that really fast. Just a little potential, just conversation about behind the scenes here for that Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden take. John texted it to me at like 7 a.m.

Pacific time. And within one minute, friend of the program, Brian Tyler Cohen also texted it to me. And I was driving and I pulled over because I just saw a text from both of them. I thought someone had tweeted something terrible from the Pod Save America account that I had to take down. No, but it was just a take from the Wall Street Journal. Just the Wall Street Journal. Do we think that says more about me and BTC?

Or do we think that says more about Elijah, that he's the repository for these bad days? I think you and BTC. Okay. Just want to make sure that we were up repository for these bad days. I think you and BTC. Okay. Okay. Just want to make sure that we were up at 7 a.m. on a weekend. Elijah. Texting Wall Street Journal.

Elijah's doing his job. I was like relieved and then I started laughing. I think it reflects badly on everyone involved. Yeah, no, I think that's right. Yeah, that's right. Elijah, thank you as always for another great round of Take Appreciator. And thank you to Adam Schiff for stopping by. And we hope to book you on Love It or Leave It so you can do your stand-up routine with Love It on the Road. There were jokes in this interview. I've not heard it yet, obviously.

There's a joke. Okay, great. I'm excited. He's funnier than Love It, you're saying? I mean, yeah. By a lot. Low bar. Okay. Bye, everyone. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The executive producer is Michael Martinez.

Our senior producer is Andy Gardner-Bernstein. Our producers are Hayley Muse and Olivia Martinez. It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis sound engineered the show. Thanks to Hallie Kiefer, Ari Schwartz, Sandy Gerard, Andy Taft, and Justine Howe for production support.

And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Phoebe Bradford, Milo Kim, and Amelia Montu. Our episodes are uploaded as videos at youtube.com slash Pod Save America.